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My group pays me $10,000 per year as the physician champion.  I came up with the figure out of the blue when we started implementation and it has proven to be a fair amount.  However, in the first year of implementation I did an excessive amount of work customizing, testing, training, etc.  I pointed out that the work far exceeded the compensation, requested a $10,000 bonus and it was honored.  I am involved with various projects with respect to the electronic systems - the various roles are treated separately since they each entail different focus/work.  The physician champion role is what I will focus on here.

We have been live for four years.  After the initial year, the work reaches a plateau, so the 10k is reasonable.  If you consider an hourly wage, it would probably work out to be a great deal for the group, but I am not looking to make money on it, just get reasonable compensation for the effort. 

There is considerable ongoing work, so supporting a physician champion is essential to a group’s success over time.  The physician champion needs to be a super-user, know everything about using the EHR, train new physicians, set up policies/procedures in relation to clinical workflow as it relates to use of the EHR.  You should also test systems, report glitches, request improvements, monitor progress of updates that are provided, test the updates when they are provided (you cannot assume anything will work correctly until you have tested it yourself after your installation).  I would expect that most EHRs are similar to mine – there is a wealth of information/utility within the system.  The more you dig, the more you find – there are many efficiencies that most will never know about unless the physician champion discovers them, learns them, customizes things as needed for the practice and then teaches others to effectively utilize the technology.

That being said, you also need admin support.  I do not get involved with staff training, nursing, admin, billing, etc.  I don’t get involved with hardware or software issues – just EHR functionality.  Groups need to have admin support as well to complement the physician champion.  Admin support may come from within the administrative staff or as a new hire.  If you have a small practice, I would expect that you might be part of an PHO or similar organization that might pool resources to get you a physician champion and admin support, but you should at least have a super-user of sorts on site in every practice regardless of size.